Snooker's original "People's Champion", Alex "Hurricane" Higgins, has been found dead at his Belfast home.

The ace of the green baize finally succumbed to the throat cancer that he had been battling for several years. With his open-necked shirt, long hair, cigarette in one hand and a strong drink in the other, Higgins overturned snooker's public image as a game played by old men in dickie bows.

It is understood that he may been dead for several days before locals found his body by breaking into his flat after he failed to answer his mobile phone.

Six-time champion Steve Davis described his former rival as one of the few geniuses around the table. "To people in the game he was a constant source of argument, he was a rebel," Davis said. "But to the wider public he was a breath of fresh air that drew them into the game. He was an inspiration to my generation."

As to his own encounters with Higgins across the table, Davis said: "It was a love-hate relationship with Alex Higgins. The thrill of playing him was fantastic, but the crowd that came along were not your usual crowd. They were much more noisy and you had to play the crowd as well."

Former snooker champion and commentator Dennis Taylor told the BBC: "I don't think you'll ever, ever see another player in the game of snooker like the great Alex Higgins." He had enjoyed some "terrific battles" against the Ulsterman, he said, adding: "He was a very, very exciting player to watch. He just was totally unique."

Higgins claimed the world champion's crown at his first attempt, aged 22, and took it back again 10 years later from Ray Reardon at the Crucible in Sheffield. He will be best remembered for winning his second world championship in 1982 when, in tears, he invited his wife Lynn and baby daughter Lauren to join him by the baize with the trophy.

A long battle with alcohol followed but despite his numerous fights and rows with referees over the years, he continued to play the game regularly and appeared at the Irish Professional Championship in 2005 and 2006.

A heavy smoker, Higgins sucked his way through as many as 80 Marlboros a day until attempting to quit in 1996. He had cancerous growths removed from his mouth in 1994 and 1996 and was told in 1998 that he had throat cancer.

He also struggled with drug addictions, and recently admitted that he had considered suicide. In his last interview, Higgins confessed that he had wanted to take his own life. "But I just haven't got the courage to kill myself. I read the Bible my mother gave me when I was 15 and told myself: 'You can fight.' I have been a fighter all my life. That's what stopped me going through with it."

In recent months Higgins's health had been deteriorating sharply, and because he had no teeth left, he had been forced to eat baby food to stay alive. The 61-year-old former champion was living in poverty and his only income came from accepting paid challenges from amateur players in the pubs and clubs of Belfast.

Higgins was divorced by two wives, Cara and Lynn, and was stopped from seeing his two children, Lauren and Jordan. The squalid end to his life contrasted with the heady days of the 1970s and 1980s. At the height of his fame, Higgins had a £4m fortune which he frittered away on drink, cocaine and gambling. Recently, he had tried to raise £20,000 for teeth implants.

One of Higgins's last public appearances was in May at an event in Manchester. Onlookers were shocked at the sight of the Hurricane now reduced to a gaunt, six-stone shrunken figure who could only speak in whispers.